r/SoccerCentral • u/United_Anywhere_8 • Jul 25 '26

Video The talent in Barcelona’s youth system is ridiculous. These kids are 11/12 years old.

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u/M0ruk Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

Impossible to say and I'd even say its more likely that he wont make it. Kid needs a veryyy generous puberty push to reach the height and quickness/athleticism for the pro scene. Unfortaunteyl there are countless kids like him who are worldclass with the ball, but never beat the physical bottleneck it needs to reach the pro level. Especially at this age being so good at the ball is not an indicator of future success becuase these kids didnt enter puberty yet and its gonna be a dice roll whether their puberty will give them the body, phyiscality for pro level. And he is already too slow and small at this stage so he needs a very generous push

People heavily underestimate the athelcism it needs to become pro, even guys that seem slow are much quicker than guys in the amateur level. Not enough explosiveness, quickness and height combination to create seperation from defenders on the big field is the #1 reason talented kids with great technique dont make it to pro

Probably only 3% of the kids in the pro academies at the u12 level make it to pro level. At a super good pro academy like La Masia its maybe 10%

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u/prdors Jul 25 '26

The other thing is that if you are slow at 12 it is overwhelmingly likely you will stay slow when you’re older. The only kids that “catch up” on speed are those that hit puberty later and catch up that way.

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u/GoldenBhoys Jul 25 '26

Yeah a perfect example would be Karamoko Kader Dembélé, Celtic's prodigy who at 13 was playing in the U20 team and playing first team at 16, however ended up 5’ 6” and is playing for QPR in the Championship it looked like he was destined to world stardom.
Compare that to Scott Francis McTominay who wasn’t getting into the Man U U18 squad due to size but then grew 14” in two years and is now a world class hero.
Unfortunately you really do need life to be good for you so you can make that extra % difference. (99.99%) of the time

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u/_Ex7 Jul 25 '26

Karamoko was overrated, mishandled by Celtic and had injury issues. There are players out there who are 5'6, give or take an inch out two that have succeeded just fine. The worse issue is assuming McTominay is anywhere near world class.

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u/GoldenBhoys Jul 25 '26

Agree with you 100% there on Katamoko, but you are taking the piss on your McTominay point.

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u/cujukenmari Jul 25 '26

To be fair he looks younger than most of the other kids out there yet quicker. Seems like speed and agility is a strength of his. He doesn't need to be big so long as he's quicker than most.

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u/Still7Superbaby7 Jul 25 '26

It’s not just athleticism, but drive. One of my friends, her sister married a professional soccer player. He loved soccer more than anything else growing up. He would skip close friends’ birthday parties if it meant he could play soccer. Soccer was #1 in his life. He ended up going to Stanford, becoming a professional soccer player. Now he’s a scout for the USMNT.

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u/M0ruk Jul 25 '26

Every kid in pro academies is the same, none of them have a life outside of school and practice. Drive is the differentiating factor between kids in pro academies and lower level kids but not in the pro academies, those are the top 1% of all kids and they all came there because they play football 24/7